


The Death of Spencer Reid

by Gryphgirl



Series: The Life of Spencer Reid [1]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-07-13
Packaged: 2018-04-09 02:46:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4330863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryphgirl/pseuds/Gryphgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started of as just a normal day, little did they know it was a day that would change all of their lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Death of Spencer Reid

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part of a series of stories. Dont worry, I'm planning for a happy ending!

The day Spencer Reid died started out like any other day for the members of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Behavioural Analysis Unit. When each awoke in their own beds in Quantico, Virginia none of knew that one of their own was gone or could imagine the sorrow that would follow for a long time to come.

  
For Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, the day began like many others. He awoke early, and started his coffee maker. He began pulling the ingredients for breakfast, eggs, milk, mushrooms and peppers from the stainless steel refrigerator. He quickly and efficiently prepped all of the ingredients and then, just like every morning he was in town, he intercepted his son Jack partway down the stairs. Jack was still in his pyjamas and planning to sneak past his dad to watch morning cartoons instead of getting ready for school. Aaron herded his son back up the stairs to the shower, then finished making breakfast. He drove his son to school on his way to the office and smiled as Jack continued to chatter excitedly about his new favorite superhero to his friends. Little did he know it would be the last time he smiled for quite a while.

  
A similar morning of organized chaos was occurring in the Jareau/LaMontagne household. Detective Will LaMontagne gathered his keys and phone, and gave his son Henry and partner JJ a brief hug and kiss. Then he headed down the driveway to his car and out to work. Inside JJ finished getting herself and Henry ready and dropped her son off at his school before heading to work herself. Little did she realize that the small family she had built for herself was about to be torn apart.

  
Across town Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia were joking and laughing as they climbed into Derek’s SUV. Penelope had stayed over at Derek’s after a night out drinking and dancing together. Neither of them had realized that they were going to find a hole ripped in the fabric of their family very soon.

  
At the BAU the last two members were already getting a head start on their day. Emily Prentiss had given up trying to go back to bed when her cat had taken up yowling at 4:00 in the morning and David Rossi had come in early to go over the notes for a seminar he was supposed to be giving later that day. One that he was not going to be in any state of mind to give by 2:00 that afternoon.

  
It had started out as an average day for the members of the BAU, but it was a day that would be burned into their memories when at exactly 9:38 am, Aaron delivered the words that would tear their worlds apart, “ Spencer’s dead”.

  
It was 2:47 am when Alyssa Marino placed a call to her local police department to report her neighbour missing. The police officer on phone duty had given her the standard line about waiting 24 hours until someone could be reported missing, but had humored her when she had said that her neighbour was an FBI agent, who had only taken a ten minute drive down the road to pick up some medication for her and had been gone for almost two hours. He entered the agent’s name into their system and set the file to be considered an active missing person, but one they wouldn’t assign an officer to until the day shift arrived.

  
At 4:32 am, Barry Daniels sat down at his desk and took a quick search through the overnight missing persons reports in hopes of finding one that might match the poor man who had been killed in an drunk driver related crash. The accident had been a bad one, both cars had been completely burned out by the time anyone had arrived on scene, both bodied burned beyond recognition. They had managed to identify the drunk driver from a report called in from the bar manager who hadn’t been able to stop the man from getting into his car. The second victim was proving slightly harder. They were concerned about making the identification as quickly as possible due to the remains of a Smith and Wesson revolver found in the car.

  
Barry’s eyes scanned over the reports and caught on a particular one.

“Martins!” he called to the desk officer.

“What is it Barry?”

“This report on the missing FBI agent, did the neighbour say where he was going?”

“Um, the drugstore on Lexington and Fifth,” Martins replied.

Barry traced the route on the map on the wall and it went right over the accident site.

“Dammit!” Barry cursed, if he was right, everything just got a whole lot more complicated for him.

He hurried down to the Medical Examiner and asked her to run the match for the missing agent.

At 6:14 she called him, “Hi Barry, I was able to confirm a match to SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. Isn’t that Will’s son’s godfather?”

Barry cursed again, “you’re right. This whole thing is going to be such a mess. Thanks Leslie”

At 7:00 am Detective William LaMontagne Jr. walked into the MPD precinct he was assigned to. As he wandered to his desk, he noticed one of the other detectives, Barry Daniels, sitting in the chair beside it.

“Hey Barry, what are you doing here still, weren’t you working the night shift?” Will asked.

“Yeah, I was. I wanted you to hear it from me. There was a traffic accident overnight, we just identified the victims. One of them was identified as Dr. Spencer Reid. I’m so sorry Will, I know that he was your son’s godfather” Barry said quietly.

Will stared at Barry uncomprehendingly for a long moment, “Spencer’s dead?”

Barry nodded solemnly, “I’m so sorry Will, is there anything I can do?”

Will looked more than a little lost, “I, I have to go… JJ and everyone, they should hear it from me”.

“I’ll talk to the Lieutenant, go, be with your family” Barry told him.

When Aaron stepped off the elevator onto the 6th floor of the FBI building in Quantico, Virginia he hadn’t been expecting to see his press liaison’s partner pacing outside of the elevator.

“Will? What’s going on? Is JJ ok?” Aaron asked.

“JJ’s fine, she’s dropping Henry off at school. I didn’t want to let anyone know over the phone,” Will said softly.

“Know what, Will?” Aaron asked.

“There was a car accident last night, drunk driver ran a red light, caused both cars to catch fire,” Will took a deep breath, “Spencer’s dead, Aaron”.

“What?” Aaron asked, unable to believe what he heard.

“They matched dental records early this morning. He just went around the corner to help a neighbour. He was picking up her prescription from the pharmacy” Will’s eyes were overmoist with threatening tears.

Aaron spent the next hour on the phone with Spencer’s lawyer, trying to sort out details to make sure that Diana Reid’s life was disrupted as little as possible. It was already going to be shaken enough by the death of her son.

When Derek, Penelope and JJ all entered the building together, Aaron solemnly gathered everyone in the conference room.

“Must be a bad one, did you see Hotch’s face?” Derek said to Emily as they sat down.

A minute later Aaron came into the room closely followed by Will.

“Will? What are you doing here?” JJ asked in confusion.

Will just shook his head and tried to keep a handle on his expression.

Aaron cleared his throat, clamping iron control down on the grief bubbling up inside of him, “a drunk driver ran a red light late last night, the ensuing collision killed both drivers and caused the resulting car fires. The ME identified the bodies this morning, Spencer’s body”. Aaron’s voice broke a little as the control he had on his grief slipped slightly.

“No,” Penelope was the first to find her voice, “no, there must be a mistake. He was going home, why would he have been out?”

“His neighbour dropped her epilepsy pills down the drain by accident, he offered to go get them for her because she couldn’t drive without them. She reported him missing when he didn’t come back,” Will told them quietly.

Penelope dissolved into tears, and Derek pulled her into his arms tears of his own coming to his eyes.

JJ fell into Wills embrace and Emily, Dave and Aaron all sat quietly absorbing their shock.

Of them all Spencer was the youngest, the brightest and the one with the most future ahead of him. None of them could understand how he could be taken from them in such a senseless way, and they never would.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave your thoughts!


End file.
